The Rainbow Room, closed for four years, appears to be on its way back to life.
Suppliers of restaurant products, technical equipment and services tell Realty Check they’ve been asked to bid on contracts for the landmarked venue on the 65th floor of 30 Rockefeller Plaza. They said they were approached not directly by landlord Tishman Speyer but by “third parties.” The vendors declined to be identified, citing confidentiality agreements.
Several sources said Tishman Speyer aims to reopen the Art Deco setting by the end of the first quarter of 2014. Unlike in the past, however, it would not be leased to an outside operator such as Cipriani, which ran it until Jerry and Rob Speyer’s company booted them in 2009.
“It doesn’t even look like a management contract in the traditional sense,” an insider said. “Rather, the Speyers’ plan is to run it themselves with the help of some top restaurant professionals hired for the job.”
Tenants at 30 Rock — including NBC and former parent GE — are said to miss the private lunch club the Rainbow Room once offered. It wasn’t clear on what basis the revived venue would be open to the public.
The landmarked Rainbow Room refers only to the original 1930s dining-and-dance venue with a domed ceiling, double-height skyline-view windows and Deco details — not other dining and drinking spaces built later on the 65th floor.
After evicting Cipriani, Tishman Speyer tapped several consultants — currently, Las Vegas-based Elizabeth Blau — to try to figure out a way to profitably relaunch the Rainbow Room.
Under the watchful eye of the Landmarks Preservation Commission, architect Michael Gabellini has been working on a “restoration” that will preserve essential architectural elements while altering floor and ceiling surfaces and replacing wall fabrics.
A rep for Tishman Speyer did not respond to requests for comment by deadline.
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A 71-year-old Holocaust survivor is the latest resident of 737 Park Ave. to end up in court with building owner Harry Macklowe — and a judge just ordered Macklowe, who’s converting the rental building to luxury condos, to restore the tenant’s services and make repairs.
The conversion has sparked several confrontations of the kind familiar when rent-stabilized apartments are vacated so they can be turned in luxury condos.
Macklowe bought the 1940 property at East 71st Street in 2011 with CIM Group and other partners in a deal valued at $360 million. Work has progressed rapidly, and exterior brick recently emerged from under a scaffold, gleaming and with new windows.
Macklowe induced many tenants to move out with generous buyouts, including in some cases new homes in other buildings. But along the way, he has sued, and been sued by, several tenants.
He’s also sued the prewar building’s former owners, the Katz family, for allegedly failing to disclose lease terms of certain longtime residents.
Now comes the thorny matter of apartment 7A, where the septuagenarian, longtime tenant John Holzer, has resisted buyout offers.
A Housing Court judge has ordered Macklowe’s company to restore gas and other services to Holzer, who claimed in a five-day trial last week that he’s been without gas since January.
In addition, Holzer claimed, he’s suffered from “harassment,” intermittent electrical shutdowns, loss of security, a partial ceiling collapse and holes punched in his walls
Specialists hired by Holzer’s lawyer, Adam Leitman Bailey, also found lead and high asbestos levels in the building.
Holzer — who was born in the Krakow ghetto in 1942, served in the US Army and has lived at 737 Park Ave. since 1980 — declined to comment.
But “it has been a nightmare for him,” Bailey said. “We applaud Judge Cheryl Gonzales for requiring Mr. Holzer’s longtime home to be returned to a habitable condition.”
The judge ordered certain violations corrected within 24 hours and gas restored within 30 days — which Macklowe’s lawyer said in court might be impossible.
She withheld a ruling on the harassment charge, however.
Macklowe declined to comment through a spokesperson.